'Woodstock for gamers' grows by leaps, bounds

Penny Arcade Expo creators expect 17,000 to attend this year

The Penny Arcade Expo is an expansion of an online comic strip created by Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, left, and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik that is an irreverent take on gaming.

The Penny Arcade Expo is an expansion of an online comic strip created by Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, left, and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik that is an irreverent take on gaming.

Photo: Gilbert W. Arias/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Photo: Gilbert W. Arias/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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The Penny Arcade Expo is an expansion of an online comic strip created by Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, left, and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik that is an irreverent take on gaming.

The Penny Arcade Expo is an expansion of an online comic strip created by Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, left, and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik that is an irreverent take on gaming.

Photo: Gilbert W. Arias/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

'Woodstock for gamers' grows by leaps, bounds

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The third installment of the annual Penny Arcade Expo is expected to draw as many as 17,000 people to downtown Bellevue this weekend, including video-game developers, publishers and console makers.

But what makes it different is that those industry types are in the minority. Most of the people who go to PAX, as it's known, are the ones who play the games.

"It's sort of a Woodstock for gamers," said Mike Krahulik, the artist who draws the popular Penny Arcade online comic strip that spawned the expo.

"It's a cultural event more than a trade show or anything like that," Krahulik said.

The three-day conference includes the traditional panel discussions and expo hall, but also nightly concerts. Large chunks of time are set aside for tournaments, letting attendees compete until early in the morning.

Last year's crowd was so intense that one sandwich shop near Meydenbauer Center reportedly ran out of bread. And that was with only 9,500 attendees. Organizers alerted restaurants and businesses this time so they can prepare for the much larger crowds of gamers.

The big attendance by gamers helps explain why Seattle-based Penny Arcade has distanced itself from suggestions that PAX could become a replacement for E3, the annual video-game convention in Los Angeles that recently announced plans to become dramatically smaller. E3 has been largely industry-oriented, without public admission.

"As far as being a clone of E3, we don't want to do that," said Robert Khoo, Penny Arcade's business development director. "We want it to be more accessible than any E3 could ever be."

At the same time, PAX is taking on some of the traits of larger gaming confabs. Many of the major game publications and blogs are attending this year to cover the event, and big companies such as Microsoft and Nintendo are among the sponsors. Next year, PAX will move from the Bellevue location to the larger Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle.

And some companies are already using PAX as a venue to make announcements related to their games. One of them is Seattle-based Flying Lab Software, a game development firm that will announce an expansion of its game "Pirates of the Burning Sea," along with a release date.

The focus on gamers is one of PAX's major strengths, said Russell Williams, Flying Lab Software's chief executive officer.

"The thing about the Penny Arcade guys is there's no question they're gamers," Williams said. "I think these guys have a really great sense of how to put together the show to really appeal to the gamers."

The Penny Arcade comic strip, published three times a week at penny-arcade.com, is an irreverent take on gaming that isn't shy about skewering major industry players. Its creators are Krahulik, 28, and writer Jerry Holkins, 30, whose alter egos, Gabe and Tycho, are the central characters.

They started the strip in 1998 on a Web site called looneygames, before creating their own site. Penny Arcade Expo is part of an expansion of the business overseen by Khoo, 26, a former business consultant who joined Penny Arcade four years ago.

"I was a huge fan of Penny Arcade. Called them up and, long story short, realized they had no idea what they were doing (from a business standpoint)," Khoo said this week. "A few months later, I dropped a 50-page business plan in front of them and said, 'Hey look, let me execute on this. I'll work for two months for free. If I can pay for myself after two months, keep me, if I can't, cut me.' "

People in the industry say they aren't surprised to see the convention grow so rapidly.

"It's a one-of-a-kind show, and it's driven by the comic strip and the personalities of Gabe and Tycho," said Microsoft's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live director of programming, better known online as "Major Nelson." "It makes perfect sense that it's picking up steam as gaming is becoming more and more interesting."

Krahulik and Holkins plan to make their own announcement during a session Friday evening at PAX, but they declined to say in advance what it will be.

The company is profitable, Khoo said. It's based in low-key offices in Seattle's Northgate neighborhood, with Krahulik and Holkins sharing a large space that includes beanbags and a TV setup for playing games.

PAX provides Krahulik and Holkins an opportunity to connect in person with their fan base. But more broadly, it's a chance for people with common interests in gaming to interact.

"Our culture is something that we experience individually so much," Holkins said. "Then when we get together, we find out that there's all these people that have this shared history. It's just that it's virtual in nature.

"But it turns out not to matter that much when you get these people together," he added. "It feels just as authentic. It's still a pure social experience."